Pardon me - does anyone know where I might find the forest? All I can see are all these trees...
Last night I got an amusing message from a friend I used to work with. Having [presumably] read my posts about Skinny Bitch, he decided to pick up a copy and see what it was all about. I think it would be fair to say it changed his life, since the purpose of him contacting me was to get help on starting his journey away from eating animals. I wrote him back a short novel and he responded quickly to thank me for being the first person to be happy for him making such a change. Part of the transformation he is affecting helped him to quit smoking cigarettes and people are universally happy about that, but he is meeting with the same resistance I've encountered for the past eight years. He expressed appropriate horror that people are missing the "bigger picture" because eating animals is so socially acceptable that no one wants to know what goes on behind the scenes.
Another friend, rich in compassion, has been posting impassioned pleas for awareness and action on behalf of dogs being bred solely to die for human consumption in Korea. Sound familiar?
No one wants to think like that though, but really - in our country, we have set aside these animals to eat and these animals to keep as companions. In other countries, they do the same, but that doesn't mean we all choose the same animals. In a culture where a cow is held up as sacred, they would have the same livid response to our consumption of cows - one of horror and disgust that anyone would think it's okay to eat this animal. Whether it's cows or canines shouldn't be the issue as much as the factory farming that exploits and destroys them both.
On that happy note... I've discovered yet another weapon in the war on dairy!
For reasons I don't know, the Dream team does not have any information available on the website for their almond milk-based frozen desserts. Fortunately, I have a relatively sharp camera and an even sharper tongue. This creamy, sweet, all-around delightful ice cream analog found a welcoming seat on that same tongue. With only 140 calories a serving and devoid of dairy, this sweet treat is welcome there anytime. If you blindfolded my husband (BIG ice cream fan, who has dragged me on multiple mid-winter midnight ice cream runs) and fed him a spoonful of Haagen-Dazs, one of Ben & Jerry's, and one of Almond Dream, I promise you, he would pick the wrong one to be the non-dairy dessert - it is so close that it even has that bizarre aftertaste that usually accompanies "real" ice cream.
With 140 calories per 1/2 cup serving, it is competing with Tempt for a favorite low-cal treat to keep around - Sometimes Treats are even better when the Sometimes can be closer together! There are 7g of good fats (poly- and mono-unsaturated) and 0 Saturated or Trans fats. There is also no cholesterol, which seems to be a growing problem among my age-peers and I think that is tragic. The ingredient list is also short and sweet. I used to be super-obsessed with labels, refusing to buy things with too many calories or too much fat. If you've been paying attention, you know that kind of behavior can lead to all kinds of trouble, consorting with the devils of artificial sweetening and chemically engineered fat substitutes. Since reading Skinny Bitch (will I ever get tired of promoting that book? I don't know.), I recently realized that I don't look at the nutritional facts until I've read the ingredients, and sometimes, I just don't even bother if I'm happy with the ingredients. My waistline has not yet punished me.
In case you're wondering, last night's dinner was Black-Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Coconut Cashew Rice from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy.
In case you're wondering, it was wonderful. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some forest to find. Do you think it's behind those trees there?
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